logo
Wimbledon fans told ‘DO NOT TRAVEL' with queue already full on 33C hottest opening day ever

Wimbledon fans told ‘DO NOT TRAVEL' with queue already full on 33C hottest opening day ever

Scottish Sun20 hours ago

Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
WIMBLEDON have told fans NOT to travel to the tennis today due to large numbers of people already waiting in the Queue.
At 7.30am this morning – three-and-a-half hours before play starts on the outside courts – an update was issued on the official Wimbledon website.
Sign up for Scottish Sun
newsletter
Sign up
3
Fans were told not to travel to Wimbledon as the Queue was at capacity
Credit: Getty
Thousands of people have been queuing for ground passes since the break of dawn – others even slept overnight in tents for the best possible spot – and by breakfast time, it had already reached capacity.
And with the temperature set to reach 33C this afternoon – if that happens it would make it the hottest opening-day for the Championships in history – there are concerns about punters falling ill.
A statement on the Wimbledon website said: 'Please be aware that the Queue for Day 1 – Monday 30th June – is very busy.
'And to avoid disappointment we strongly advise you not to travel to the Grounds today.
READ MORE ON WIMBLEDON
BEER WE GO Wimbledon price list revealed as cost of beer up & Pimm's more than £12 a GLASS
'Please note there is hot weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday.
'In both The Queue and the Grounds there may be periods where shade is not available.
'Please plan appropriately, including bringing water, suncream and a hat.
"Water refill points are available in the Queue and around the Grounds.'
CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS
There were also reports of TFL staff telling fans at Earl's Court Station – which runs the District Line down to Southfields and Wimbledon stations – not to travel.
Fans were given a shock when they were told to stay away from SW19 as it is already 'at capacity'.
Emma Raducanu giggles as she addresses Carlos Alcaraz relationship ahead of Wimbledon
3
Wimbledon 2025 LIVE - follow all the latest scores and updates from a thrilling fortnight at SW19
An announcement over the PA system put a dampener on any excitement about watching tennis later today by telling travellers before 9am that the area was incredibly busy.
The Queue offers fans the chance to buy limited Show Court tickets or a Grounds pass, which are sold on a best available, one per person queuing basis.
A total of 500 tickets for Centre Court – excluding the last four days – No1 Court and No2 Court are available for the days that the courts are in play.
More than 40,000 punters are expected to be passing through the gates with former US Open champion Emma Raducanu one of 14 Brits in action.
The previous highest temperature for the first day was 29.3C, which was recorded in 2001.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Jack Draper has been fuelled by ‘nepo baby' jibes
Jack Draper has been fuelled by ‘nepo baby' jibes

Telegraph

time11 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

Jack Draper has been fuelled by ‘nepo baby' jibes

There was a period in Jack Draper's life – the best part of a decade, in fact – when he could barely enter a tournament without someone bringing up his parentage. As the son of Roger Draper, the man who ran British tennis from 2007 to 2013, Jack was the ultimate nepo baby. Rival parents saw him as a lucky swine, unfairly promoted ahead of their own little darlings. This is entirely typical of junior tennis: a seething cauldron of jealousy and spite that would make an irresistible reality TV show. Such resentments inevitably fed through to the other young players. When I first interviewed Draper, in the summer of 2020, he told me, 'I would often go to junior tournaments and have 15 boys on the balcony I had never seen before willing me on to lose, making noises before I serve.' One wonders what all those hecklers are thinking now, as Draper prepares to enter Wimbledon as the fourth seed. Do they still believe that his career benefited from preferential treatment? Do they imagine themselves walking out on No1 Court, if only they had been similarly favoured? In all probability, plenty do take that view. We are all familiar with the sort of bar-room bore who insists that they would have played for Manchester United, had they not been the victim of a career-ending challenge on Hackney Marshes. But this is to underestimate the ingredients required to climb near the top of a global sport such as tennis. Athleticism and technique will only take you so far. To win a $10 million tournament like Indian Wells, as Draper did in March, you need an X-factor… not to mention a Y-factor and a Z-factor as well. During that same interview in 2020, Draper told me: 'There's always going to be people thinking that I am getting better treatment or whatever. But at the end of the day I am 280 in the world at the age of 18, and my dad has not done that for me. I am the one who has put all my efforts and hard work and sacrifices into being a good tennis player.' The sceptics probably scoffed at this comment. They had consistently painted Draper as an over-promoted ninny with more money than talent, and they weren't about to change their minds. Yet his continuing evolution has made them look daft. Admittedly, Draper's early outings on the tour betrayed a few obvious shortcomings. He wilted in the heat. He hit too many unthreatening rally balls. He didn't make enough first serves. But an expert observer could also discern the rudiments of a world-class game. And when you combine a Trojan work ethic with a ruthlessly clear-eyed view of your own weaknesses, it's amazing how quickly the diamond emerges from the ore. At this year's Wimbledon, the latest version of Draper will be a revelation for those who haven't watched him recently. He has developed into a very different animal to the man who collapsed on the court in his very first ATP match in Miami. On top of being a physical beast, he has become an assertive tactician and a reliable server with a knack for banging down aces when he most needs them. This season's win-loss record of 28-8 is comfortably the best of his career. 'The thing about Jack is that he has always been a fantastic natural competitor, even from a very early age,' says the experienced coach Calvin Betton. 'People like that will usually find a way.' No one is denying that Draper enjoyed advantages in life. Like Tim Henman, he attended Reed's, a fee-paying school in Surrey where he was coached by the brilliant Ben Haran – a man more recently involved in guiding 16-year-old Hannah Klugman's career. But then, few of the junior rivals who went up against Draper would have been drawn from housing estates either. Tennis is self-selecting in that way: the day-to-day costs of training and travelling form a natural barrier to entry. While the exclusion of working-class families is regrettable on any number of levels, Betton – who himself comes from a gritty part of Barnsley – disputes the idea that the less privileged must necessarily be hungrier for success. 'I've worked with all sorts of families,' he told Telegraph Sport, 'and the most committed kid I ever saw was the son of two Cambridge University professors.' It's true that the most driven athletes tend to have faced some sort of trauma or challenge in their upbringing. But that can come in any number of forms. The young Rafael Nadal was conditioned to be a relentless competitor by his uncle Toni, a harsh disciplinarian whose tough love often alarmed Rafa's parents, while the young Roger Federer only really focused on his tennis after the loss of his beloved coach Peter Carter in a car accident. For Draper, perhaps it was the barracking from the balcony that helped sharpen his desire in the first place. Speaking about it years later, he dismissed it as 'just kids' stuff'. But the very fact that it stuck in his mind shows how much it hurt. More recently, Draper has become something of a specialist in facing down hostile crowds. There were successive five-set victories over a pair of Aussies in Melbourne in January, followed by an equally thrilling late-night win over home favourite Gael Monfils at the recent French Open. So, maybe being a nepo baby really did help Draper. Just not in the way his critics thought.

Boulter claims top ten scalp as Brit women shine at Wimbledon
Boulter claims top ten scalp as Brit women shine at Wimbledon

South Wales Argus

time20 minutes ago

  • South Wales Argus

Boulter claims top ten scalp as Brit women shine at Wimbledon

Boulter raced to the first set against ninth seed Paula Badosa and then, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, let that advantage slip on Centre Court. But the British number two rediscovered her first set form to close out a 6-2 3-6 6-4 victory to claim the scalp of a top ten player for the fourth time in her career. "I've played too many matches recently where I started out great and then let it slip, it was something my team and I talked about a lot," she said. "I didn't want it to happen again but I kept fighting and kept trying to be positive. I just went after everything I could and just hoped it would happen. "This court is the epitome of what every British child dreams of playing on, it makes you feel like a little girl again." Emma Raducanu knows she's going to need to find the form that made her a star if she has any designs making this campaign more than a fleeting one. As expected, she outclassed fellow Brit Mimi Xu, just 17, to win a straightforward and straight sets opening round encounter 6-3 6-3. But now reality bites for the recently installed British number one, with 2023 champion Marketa Vondrousova waiting in the second round and top seed Aryna Sabalenka just beyond that. Raducanu knows a thing or two about teenage upsets and Grand Slam fairytales but was in no mood to allow Xu, a talented player with plenty more Wimbledons ahead, her moment in the spotlight. The pair are forming a close friendship as part of Britain's Billie Jean King Cup team, while the 22-year-old practises her Mandarin by speaking to Xu's mother. But losing this - against a player ranked 278 places below her - was simply not a thought she was prepared to countenance. "I can remember how special and daunting the experience is playing in your first Wimbledon but she should be really proud of how she competed out there," said Raducanu. "She'll learn so much and I hope this is the first of very many Wimbledons for her. "It's always tough playing a British player but the atmosphere was so supportive for both of us. Sometimes these early matches are difficult because of all the nerves and adrenaline. "I'm just very pleased to have won that match, Mimi is a really dangerous player and she's got some amazing weapons in her game. "I had some moments where I lost my focus which is something that I need to work on. She was able to get more into the match and that meant I had to tough it out. I'm happy to be through." Raducanu's Wimbledon win over Vondrousova four years ago was her breakthrough match, within a few weeks she was a Grand Slam champion in New York, while her Czech rival went on to win the title here two years later. "She's just won a big grass court tournament in Berlin and she's obviously excellent on this surface and in good form, I'll need to play very well to get over the line," added Raducanu. "We've played three times and she's won the last couple but I felt it was a much closer match when we played in Abu Dhabi earlier this year." 'I'm in awe of her, to feel that love for the game is really precious' 🥹❤️ When Joanie met, played with and inspired her hero @EmmaRaducanu — LTA (@the_LTA) June 13, 2025 Sonay Kartal is hoping to ink her name into Wimbledon's second week – and then get a tattoo to celebrate. The British No.3 arrived in confident mood, having claimed the biggest win of her career by beating Australian world No.16 Daria Kasatkina at Queen's. She reached the third round here 12 months ago and, following a sluggish start, was good value for her 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 win over Jelena Ostapenko – a former French Open champion and Wimbledon semi-finalist. She already has 14 tattoos and hopes to make it 15-love – but only if she can better last year's showing at SW19. 'This is the top win of my career – it's about proving I can compete with the best players in the world, and this shows I can do that,' said Kartal, who had lost her previous match with the Latvian only last week in Eastbourne. For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA website.

Iga Swiatek shows true colours with honest thoughts after breaking down in tears
Iga Swiatek shows true colours with honest thoughts after breaking down in tears

Daily Mirror

time25 minutes ago

  • Daily Mirror

Iga Swiatek shows true colours with honest thoughts after breaking down in tears

Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek is unhappy with the demanding schedule that elite tennis players have to adhere to and has explained herself ahead of Wimbledon Iga Swiatek hit out at the 'super intense' schedule after arriving at Wimbledon the day after suffering an agonising defeat in Germany. Swiatek is seeded eighth at the All England Club and will get her tournament under way by playing Polina Kudermetova on Tuesday following a good run at Bad Homburg. The Polish star reached the final in Germany before falling 6-4 7-5 to Jessica Pegula. The 24-year-old has won five Grand Slam titles – four at the French Open and one at the US Open – but has generally struggled more on grass. ‌ She was delighted to reach the final at Bad Homburg, but the defeat against her American opponent was a painful one. Swiatek was seen in tears on the court on Saturday, using a towel to wipe them away to try and compose herself. ‌ After flying straight to London after the defeat, Swiatek spoke to the media at Wimbledon on Sunday, where she opened up on the difficulties of her life at the top of elite tennis. Asked what the tour could do better to support players, she replied: 'Well, that's a difficult topic because obviously everybody has different issues or see problems in different things. 'But for me, I think the scheduling is super intense. It's too intense. There's no point for us to play, like, over 20 tournaments in a year. Sometimes we need to sacrifice playing for your country because we need to keep up with playing these WTA 500s, for example, because we're going to get a zero in the ranking. 'I think these kinds of obligations and the rules about mandatory tournaments just put pressure on us. For me the scheduling is pretty intense. I think people would still watch tennis, maybe even more, if we played less tournaments, but the quality, for example, would be better or we would be more consistent because of that. 'So yeah, this is for sure challenging. But tennis is a difficult sport overall. Like, every week you start kind of from the beginning. Yeah, like every week can tell you if you're a great player or you sucked this week, you know? Article continues below 'You always have to have in the back of your mind that tennis is not your whole life. You've got to give some perspective and also be proud of sometimes even when you don't win, because only one person out of the whole tournament wins.' Despite falling to Pegula at the final hurdle, Swiatek feels the tournament has given her good preparation for Wimbledon, where her best result saw her reach the quarter finals two years ago. 'Just having the experience of playing few matches before, the same as in 2023, yeah, it gives you more confidence,' she said. 'I don't know. You just have to get through some situations on the court, and it gives you the extra experience and kind of the momentum to go forward. I'm really happy I had the opportunity to play there. I played the top players, so yeah, it gives a lot.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store